Creating HistoryAamir Khan steers away from mushy romance in
lush locations in his first production, Lagaan. The formula-busting
period film on colonial arrogance, backed by good acting, promises to
give Indian cinema a classy makeover.

THE
NATION

Governance On
The Hold Absent ministers, coalition politics and
an unwell prime minister paralyse all decision making at the Centre. With
business sentiments diving and industrial growth rate receding, the alarm
bells have begun to ring.

BUSINESS

Super
Clinic Inc.Patients will be treated as customers
with some companies hoping to revolutionise the Rs 60,000-crore private
healthcare market. They are setting up a chain of neighbourhood health
clinics that will provide quality medical care.

STATES

Fostering
Ill-will The arrest of Jayalalitha's foster son
may be linked
to the sour relationship.

Crescent
Classroom An organisation has given madarsa education
in the state a communal slant.

The arrest of Jayalalitha's disowned foster son may
be linked to a relationship that has gone sour

By Arun Ram

During the run-up
to the recently-concluded assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, a shabby banner
in a sleepy southern village likened AIADMK General Secretary Jayalalitha
Jayaram to the "Mummoorthy", the holy trinity of creation, protection
and destruction. Too preposterous, many might have thought then. But Jayalalitha's
disowned foster son V.N. Sudhakaran realised in the early hours of June
13 in a rather rude way that the banner was something more than just an
activist's display of sycophancy.

FALLING APART: Sudhakaran (centre) being taken to court; and (below)
Jayalalitha had organised his lavish wedding in 1995

Shortly before daybreak that day, the police
arrived at Sudhakaran's Chennai residence and arrested him on charges
of attempted murder. The raid that followed yielded an unlicensed gun
and, as the police told Metropolitan Magistrate P. Jayapalan, a sachet
of heroin. The fir says Sudhakaran had threatened his former aide Gopu
Sridhar "at gunpoint" for not repaying money he had borrowed
from him.

In his complaint, Sridhar said Sudhakaran called
him to his residence on June 12. When Sridhar went there with his assistant
Muthuraman and driver Palani, the three were beaten up by Sudhakaran's
henchmen. Sudhakaran flashed his pistol and threatened him, Sridhar alleged.
Foul, cried Sudhakaran. He says the cases were foisted against him to
tarnish his political image. An ardent worshipper of Lord Muruga, the
self-proclaimed "Chinna MGR" (Junior MGR) said God would come
to his rescue.

Sudhakaran, who was arrested around 3 a.m.,
was kept in two police stations till the morning and produced before the
metropolitan magistrate, who remanded him to judicial custody till June
27. He was then taken to the Vellore Jail by road. Later in the day, Sudhakaran's
father T. Vivekanandan was also arrested on the basis of the same complaint.
Cases were also filed under several sections of the IPC, including Section
307 (attempt to murder) and Sections 20 (1) (B) (A) of the Arms Act. And
later under Section 25(1)(D) of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
(NDPS) Act.

If popularity makes men, Jayalalitha is Sudhakaran's
undisputed creator. In 1994, chief minister Jayalalitha named the little-known
nephew of her near-inseparable aide Sasikala as her foster son. That marked
the beginning of Sudhakaran's meteoric rise. Jayalalitha doted on him.
She had personally called on actor Sivaji Ganesan to ask for his granddaughter
Sathyalakshmi's hand in marriage for Sudhakaran. The wedding on September
7, 1995, monitored by Jayalalitha herself, made national news for its
lavishness. The display of wealth and misuse of official machinery was
a major factor contributing to her rout in the 1996 polls. The same year
saw the AIADMK general secretary publicly disowning Sudhakaran as her
foster son.

But why was Sudhakaran arrested more than five
years after incurring Jayalalitha's wrath? In the Poes Garden intrigue,
characterised by Jayalalitha's precarious proximity to Sasikala and her
family, logical explanations often fail and gossips laced with indistinguishable
truth take over. Here is one: While Jayalalitha was in prison in 1996
on corruption charges and her Poes Garden residence was about to be raided,
a huge sum of money was spirited away by Sudhakaran.

There are diverse opinions on the amount, from
Rs 100 crore to Rs 1,100 crore, which is almost equal to Tamil Nadu's
health budget. Street talk has it that the money was never returned and
Sudhakaran instead launched an expensive image-building exercise.

Proclaiming himself to be MGR-reincarnate, he
cobbled together a group he named the "Chinna MGR Narpani Manram
(Junior MGR Fan Club)". In those days, Sridhar was a key aide of
Sudhakaran. He was in charge of releasing advertisements and posters of
Chinna MGR's pilgrimages, organising farewells and reception meetings
for the leader at railway stations and airports and making sure that the
evening papers covered "the event". Despite all this, Sudhakaran's
Manram remained a nondescript outfit. With Jayalalitha returning to power,
goes the theory, the pressure on Sudhakaran to return the money became
insurmountable.

Pak UnpluggedFresh-faced youngsters
were cheering through qawwalis, pop songs and poetry reading at India
Habitat Centre, Delhi. The occasion? A week-long workshop, "Rehumanizing
the Other", was all about promoting neighbourly feelings in a period
of bad press.more...

The Delhi Government's campaign to clean up the Yamuna
was impressive but needs to backed up by measures that can weed out the
root causes of the pollution. INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Sayantan
Chakravarty reports in Long
Drive